The nice folks at the Birmingham Bar Association (and white-collar criminal defense lawyer Steve Shaw in particular) invited me to deliver a lunchtime CLE on a white-collar subject of my choice. The topic ended up being “The Five Best Ways for Your Client’s Employees to Get Indicted.” One could come up with more ways your client’s employees could get indicted, but life is short. Here is the handout: The Five Best Ways for Your Client’s Employees to Get Indicted. Download it. It’s not legal advice, but it has some fairly useful material about bribery, obstruction and honest-services fraud in the Eleventh Circuit, as well as quotes from Men In Black (1997). We spent…

The ABA Southeastern White Collar Crime Institute near Atlanta on September 10 and 11, 2015 is a good event at a nice place (Chateau Elan) for white-collar practitioners. They are letting me speak at the conference, but do not let that dissuade you from attending. The faculty list is comprehensive and the topics timely. Plus, it’s at a winery. Here are some of the topics: The Effective Use of Criminal Discovery: Tactics for the Defense and the Government Litigating Prosecutorial Conduct: The Line Between Ethics and Tactics The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and Other International Bribery Crimes: When Other Nations Join the Enforcement Party Supreme Court Update and Other Notable…

Two different audiences — CJA criminal defense lawyers and Birmingham corporate and non-profit leaders — heard my thoughts, hopefully helpful ones, about white-collar crime and federal criminal discovery. As part of an annual continuing legal education event sponsored by the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Alabama on December 12 , 2014, we discussed “Discovery In Complex Criminal Cases.” Kevin Butler heads up the Northern District’s FPD office and does a great job. (We interviewed Kevin here). Read more about the Federal Public Defender’s Office here. This week, I participated in a white-collar crime panel for the 2014-2015 class of Leadership Birmingham, a worthwhile organization. The…

White Collar Wire is now listed on the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (“NACDL”) website under White Collar On The Web. The White Collar Crime Policy Department of NACDL does excellent work: NACDL’s White Collar Crime Policy Department is on the front lines right now combating new and unnecessary criminal legislation and pushing for meaningful criminal justice reform. Our advocacy focuses primarily on the problems of overcriminalization, vicarious corporate criminal liability, and disproportionate and insufficiently flexible sentencing, among others. In support of this effort, NACDL serves as a leader in a politically diverse coalition of bar, non-profit and business groups who advocate for a sound and just criminal justice…

The Network of Trial Law Firms is an excellent CLE vehicle. Here’s a Sharman White Collar Panel Video of a Network panel about white-collar issues for civil lawyers — me, Jackie Arango of Akerman Senterfit (Miami), Joel Neckers of Wheeler Trigg (Denver) and Gerry Leone of Noxon Peabody (Boston). Here’s the blurb from the Network program: No one thinks of themselves, their employees or their company as “criminals.” On the other hand, Walter White was once just a chemistry teacher. The lines between what are business-crime problems and what are traditional corporate civil issues — compliance, due diligence, regulatory recordkeeping and permitting, whistleblowers, confidentiality, privilege and indemnification — have…

Here’s a story (via @TheAtlantic) about a study from Northwestern University concluding that tenured professors make worse teachers. This was a study of undergraduate freshmen. Does the same principle hold true for law schools?

If you are in the New York area, this is an excellent source of free CLE: Network of Trial Law Firms Financial Services CLE Supercourse When? Friday, September 20, when experienced financial services practitioners from across the U.S. and Canada convene in New York City. Breakfast and lunch at the City Bar Building (44th St. near Sixth Ave.) are included. Presentations are short (20 minutes each). Sign-up? on-line. Why? I admit it — I’m speaking (actually, I’m leading a breakout session on “White-Collar Crime.”). Topics: Litigating against FINRA and the SEC 18 USC 1519: The Changing Face of Obstruction Traditional and Alternative Products: Suitability and Supervisory Issues FINRA Arbitration –…

When even the ABA takes steps to move away from tenure, as here — http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202614832071&ABA_Panel_Favors_Dropping_Law_School_Tenure_Requirement — we know that change is truly afoot.